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Poverty Bay Standard, Volume I, Issue 282, 11 November 1884, Page 2

During the course of an address at an International Education Conference in London in connection with the Health Exhibition Museum, Lord Reay dealt with some of the “ burning ” educational questions ,of the day. The monopoly of the three R’s was, hesubmitted, doomed, and the enthronement of the three D’s —drawing, drill, and adroitness—approaching. The primary school must not degenerate into a mere workshop. In pleading for rational being substituted for mechanical methods, he simply desired to rouse those inquisitive tendencies, which in many cases were now deadened, to make the primary school not the early grave of individuality, but an attractive spot where the productive use of leisure as well as the hours devoted to work, coupled with the surroundings of prints and flowers, shall give pleasure to the boys and girls who frequent it. Agricultural education was considered in certain quarters as a luxury. Lord Reay deprecated this extraordinary error. Farming was a pursuit which required in these days the utmost skill and versatility. The fact was admitted not by mere theorists, but by the most practical agriculturists in every country. Through technical education they must recover lost ground, and in this connection his Lordship acknowledged the invaluable character of the recommendations of the Commission on Technical Instruction. If, Lord Reay added, the Universities train our statesmen, our doctors, our lawyers, our clergy, our literary, and our scientific men, he could see no reason why they should not give the highest engineering, artistic, financial, commercial, and agricultural skill.